The present invention relates to a foldable stroller, more particularly a foldable stroller, that can be collapsed in three dimensions to have a significantly reduced size for easy storage.
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional foldable stroller has a front support member 10, a handle 20, a rear support member 30, front wheels 101, rear wheels 301, a seat 40, a pair of connecting rods 50, and a pair of operating rods 60. The rear wheels 301 are connected to the lower ends of the rear support member 30, while the front wheels 101 are disposed at the lower ends of the front support member 10. The rear support member 30 has extension portions at upper ends thereof, and is pivotally connected to the intermediate portions of the front support member 10. The seat 40 is disposed between the extension portions and the front support member 10. The handle 20 is connected to the upper ends of the front support member 10. The connecting rods 50 are pivotally connected to each other at middle portions, and are pivotally connected to the upper ends of the front support member 10 as well as the lower sections of the rear support member 30 at two ends thereof. The operating rods 60 are foldable at the middles, and are pivotally connected to the ends of the connecting rods 50 so that the stroller can be kept in the in-use position by stretching the operating rods 60.
To fold the stroller, the middles of both the operating rods 60 are pulled so that the parts of the support rods 10, 30 move closer, resulting in a reduction of the width of the stroller. However, the conventional stroller is found to have disadvantages as follows:
1. Each of the operating rods 60 has to be pulled because no co-moving element is provided to connect one of the rods 60 to the other, making the stroller relatively inconvenient to operate.
2. There is no locking element for locking the conventional stroller in the stretched in-use position. Therefore, the conventional stroller is prone to accidentally collapse and thereby hurt a baby seated thereon should an unintentional external force be exerted on the operating rods 60.
3. Only the width is reduced when the conventional stroller is folded, leaving the conventional stroller with a relatively large size after folding that will take up a lot of room in storage and transportation.
4. The conventional stroller is folded by causing the rods 60 and the connecting rods 50 to pivot on each other. Being pivotally connected to each other at the centers thereof, the rods 50 are likely to reduce the smoothness of the folding and the unfolding process.
Referring to FIG. 2, a pulling element 70 is connected to the middles of the operating rods 60 of the above conventional stroller at two ends; thus, the user only has to fold the upper one of the rods 60 in order to collapse the conventional stroller because the other operating rod 60 will be folded at the same time. However, the other disadvantages have yet to be overcome, namely, (1) a lack of locking elements for securing the conventional stroller in the unfolded position against unintentional folding; (2) an unsatisfactory reduction of size after folding; and, (3) a lack of smoothness of folding and unfolding due to the connecting rods 50.
It is a main object of the present invention to provide a foldable stroller, which can be folded in three dimensions so that it is relatively compact after folding.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a foldable stroller, which can be easily folded.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a foldable stroller, which has a locking means for preventing the foldable stroller from being inadvertently collapsed into the folded position.